In Episode 5 we welcome Professor Rebecca Willis to discuss an aspect of science for the Anthropocene, and broader action for the Anthropocene, that is increasingly pressing for society as a whole: the role of democracy in effective governance of these issues, and the flipside of the current crisis of democratic government as against an ascendant authoritarianism the world over. Drawing on her excellent book ‘Too Hot to Handle: The Democratic Challenge of Climate Change’ (Bristol UP: 2020), we discuss the need for not just more, but better, democracy if we are to meet the challenge of climate emergency, focusing specifically on the potential contribution of various forms of deliberative democracy. Tune in for an insightful discussion ranging across the full set of relationships between power and knowledge: from the role of knowledge and science in climate government and in democracy per se, to insights regarding the need for a different relationship between science and politics, to reflection on how critical social science on these issues can itself best contribute to these issues.
